Doctor who gave man, 70, fatal dose was 'tired and dithery'

A foreign doctor was "very tired and dithery" when he administered a fatal overdose to a 70-year-old patient, an inquest heard today.

David Gray died after he was given more than 10 times the recommended daily dose of painkiller, according to his family's lawyers.

Dr Daniel Ubani, 66, a locum doctor from Germany, was on his first shift for a GP out-of-hours service provider when he injected Mr Gray on 16 February 2008.

Mr Gray's partner Lynda Bubb told the first day of the inquest in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire: "The doctor seemed a bit dithery. He was muttering to himself. He took everything out that he needed and placed it on the window sill. He did not speak very much English but what he said I understood. He seemed very tired and not as alert as he could have been as a doctor."

Ms Bubb said she called the out-of-hours service provider SuffDoc, now called Take Care Now, at lunchtime when Mr Gray of Manea, Cambridgeshire, refused to eat because of the pain from kidney stones.

When Dr Ubani arrived four hours later, Ms Bubb said she told the doctor Mr Gray usually received 100mg of pethidine as pain relief. She said: "To my knowledge he did not physically examine David. I did not see him take his pulse or blood pressure, but I was out of the room for a short time."

Ms Bubb said Dr Ubani gave Mr Gray two injections and then left the syringes on the window sill. She said she checked on her partner half an hour after Dr Ubani left and he appeared to be asleep, adding: "Some time later I realised there was something wrong with David."

Cambridgeshire North and East Coroner William Morris is also examining the case of Iris Edwards, who died a day after she was treated by Dr Ubani. Dr Ubani was given a nine-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay €5,000 costs in Witten, Germany, over Mr Gray's death. The prosecution means he cannot be charged in the UK.